Protest & The First Amendment
As I write this I’m on a bus that is entering Washington DC, where I and Tibetans and supporters (primarily the Tibetan Youth Congress and Students for a Free Tibet) with me on the bus are about to exercise all five rights accorded by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
We are assembling freely outside the White House to protest China’s continued occupation of Tibet, repression of Falun Gong practitioners, and ongoing hostility towards Taiwanese independence. We are petitioning President Bush to address the plight of the Tibetan people in his talks with Chairman Hu Jintao. We are publishing our opinions on web sites and weblogs without fear of censorship, as well as taking part in interviews with journalists who will likewise have no fears of censorship. We are safe in the knowledge that the words we use are protected and none of us will be put in jail for our political beliefs. Those among us who are Buddhist or Falun Gong practitioners harbor no concerns that their prayers will make them the targets of oppression.
None of these freedoms can be found for Tibetans inside of Tibet today. We utilize our protected rights of free speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition because we have them and Tibetans inside of Tibet do not. I haven’t felt the profound privilege of being an American much more intensely than I do today.
I’m on the bus coming back to New York City now. It’s after 10pm and it’s been an incredibly long, successful day. About 200+ Tibetans joined hundreds of Taiwanese, a few dozen Uighurs, and probably a few thousand Falun Gong practitioners to protest Hu outside the White House and in locations around DC. Often standing across from us, separated by barriers and mounted police, were groups of paid Chinese greeters. The Han Chinese could has large flags, uniformed hats and outfits, and a lot of canned recordings of CCP marching bands. They weren’t much into chanting or slogans, just picking the occasional fight with resolutely peaceful, yet persistent, Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners.
It’s interesting to watch a government that is so sensitive about being adored that they’d hire and bus in expats to great their dignitaries. There’s something truly sad about the sort of people who would be edified by paid greeters. Aren’t you getting enough adoration at home Hu? Probably not, if 87,000 instances of mass protest in the last year in China is a fair indicator.
A Falun Gong women who is a reporter for The Epoch Times was able to ask a prolonged question of Bush and Hu during their joint presser in the Rose Garden. As noted earlier, she asked Bush what he would do to stop China’s repression, torture, and execution of Falun Gong and its practitioners. She also told Hu, in Chinese, that his and his communist party cohorts days were numbered. Again, China’s phobia of negative press blazed through as China TV immediately cut its feed when the woman’s question turned negative – only to reconnect a few seconds later (perhaps thinking the coast would surely be clear) to find her still talking and they had to cut the feed again. What an embarrassment for the state of freedom of information inside China – they can’t even show their people what’s going on inside a free society.
My day ended in a slightly disappointing fashion. SFT had information about Hu’s speaking engagement at the US-China Business Council. I and at first one, then two more, coworkers were able to make it inside the lobby of the event, yet could not gain access to the actual reception. We were prepared to give Hu a real “greeting� in person had he been brave enough to walk through the front door – you know, show him what free speech looks like in an open society. Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for him, he took the coward’s way in and entered the event through a service entrance.
The battery on my laptop is almost dead and I’m stone cold exhausted, having gotten up at 4am today. Tomorrow will be another early day, as we’ll be headed to protest Hu’s talk at Yale University in Connecticut. More updates will follow Friday evening at the earliest, but check out Tibet Will Be Free for press coverage and pictures.
Pictures above taken on my cell phone. Cross posted at Tibet Will Be Free.
One Responseto “Protest & The First Amendment”
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Philo is my hero. Y’all rock the party like no other. Thanks for the panorama’s and the passion. Don’t be disappointed – you gave all and then some, like always.